Here is your open thread for the week of May 19th, 2014. You may post random links and off-topic discussions here. Also, if you have an idea or a topic you’d like to see covered in an article, please make it known.

NOTICE: If you have comments to make about politics or economics that do not somehow directly relate to Seattle-area real estate, they may be posted in the current Politics & Economics Open Thread. If you post such comments here, they will be moved there.

Share:

About The Tim

Tim Ellis is the founder of Seattle Bubble. His background in engineering and computer / internet technology, a fondness of data-based analysis of problems, and an addiction to spreadsheets all influence his perspective on the Seattle-area real estate market.

80 comments:

Also the Calling on expired listings is a long honored main stay of ALL agents. Also the DNC list does not really apply to this. You had a listing and that contact info is available to all NWMLS agents. You GAVE the info to them. You can not go back and say DNC latter.

This is incorrect. The DNC list does apply, at least once the listing is expired. Clearly it doesn’t apply though if you’re just wanting to view or show the listing and it has a PTS number.

Is always stretching “cooked books” statistics IMO; as though its scientific facts. The best financial news sources are Money, Fortune and Times…..and even these sources have to be filtered for NWO exagerations.

Maybe I should quit being so critical of Bloomberg. This story at least points out how absurd, hypocritical and ineffective this Obama Administration action is. Seriously, they’re prosecuting the Chinese for spying!

Maybe I should quit being so critical of Bloomberg. This story at least points out how absurd, hypocritical and ineffective this Obama Administration action is. Seriously, they’re prosecuting the Chinese for spying!

http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-tao-intercepting-packages-2014-5
(May 15) … The NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) unit hijacked routers, servers, and other network gear before they were delivered to customers. TAO specifically targeted packages that were headed toward organizations that were marked for surveillance, although the names of these companies haven’t been revealed.

and… March 26thhttp://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/hardware/us-suspicions-of-chinas-huawei-based-partly-on-nsas-own-spy-tricks
… NSA documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden show how the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations unit had succeeded in infiltrating computer servers in Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China by 2010. The success allowed the agency to spy on email communications for Huawei employees, including Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei, as well as steal the source code for specific Huawei products that could be used to exploit those products for espionage or cyberwarfare purposes.

The New York Times withheld technical details on exactly how the NSA had compromised Huawei’s servers in response to national security reasons cited by the Obama administration. But a leaked NSA “spy catalog” made available on Cryptome, a website that publishes government and corporate documents, does show how the agency had already succeeded in installing software back doors in certain Huawei hardware, such as firewalls and routers, as early as 2008. The NSA catalog also reveals exploits for computer hardware belonging to U.S. companies such as Dell.

“The exploits in the NSA catalog actually mirror what the U.S. has been accusing Huawei of potentially doing to their products,” Bumgarner says.

At the Correspondent’s Dinner Obama joked that to get attention from CNN he had to travel to Malaysia. He also joked that their correspondents were still looking for their table.

(Maybe you had to be there.)

Anyway, amazing how a network can become a laughingstock just by their coverage.

you know who is doing the criticizing for the most part? other networks who were losing big to CNN. CNN got criticized for covering one of those sick cruises too but they got big ratings. they were just covering what people wanted. the ratings show that. also remember that the only time people turn to CNN these days is for coverage of events like that.

“Anyway, amazing how a network can become a laughingstock just by their coverage.”

RE:Kary L. Krismer @ 5 – I recall seeing something on CNN like “THE COUNTDOWN UNTIL THE BLACK BOX GOES DEAD” with some sort of running timer on the screen.

For some reason, they thought that at EXACTLY n days, the pings would stop. The battery chemistry must have been designed to last EXACTLY n days. They give Jim Foreman’s snow reporting a serious run for its money.

Here are a couple of quotes:
After the Seattle Arts & Lectures event with former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday night, people talking to me at the edge of the stage were less interested in Too Big To Fail banks and the too-cozy Washington-Wall Street connection than the potential for a real estate bubble and crash in Seattle.

and:
I haven’t seen this question taken up by the always interesting Seattle Bubble blog, which has a wide lens on real estate, too. So here’s my best guess …

I have been too busy the last few months to be able to follow Seattle Bubble as closely as I would like, so I don’t know if John’s comment is accurate. In any case, I am interested in what you all think about our current “bubble” status.

Maybe I should quit being so critical of Bloomberg. This story at least points out how absurd, hypocritical and ineffective this Obama Administration action is. Seriously, they’re prosecuting the Chinese for spying!

After watching the evening news and seeing the dog and pony show they did for the press on this, it really does seem like it was intended to be a bright shiny object.

Given the fact they could have done this at any time within the next year, or not at all, I wonder what news story they were trying to push off the table. Maybe something about the failing talks with Iran over their nuclear program, or maybe the guy who wrote the quid pro quo drone piece was having a Congressional hearing? Or maybe Obama was just sick of so much focus on Hillary?

“..Additionally, 46 percent of the unemployed respondents reported not having had any job interviews in the prior month and 23 percent report their last interview was in 2012. The poll also shows that a significant percentage of the unemployed are not currently receiving jobless benefits. Only 20 percent said they were currently receiving unemployment compensation. But among those receiving government assistance, the poll suggests the aid may be diminishing their incentive to find employment:…”

… gotta insure profits for the industry. Why not just give the private insurers more taxpayer money that they can distribute to their shareholders. Corporate socialism!http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-insurance-bailout-20140521-story.html#page=1
The Obama administration has quietly adjusted key provisions of its signature healthcare law to potentially make billions of additional taxpayer dollars available to the insurance industry if companies providing coverage through the Affordable Care Act lose money..

The move was buried in hundreds of pages of new regulations issued late last week. It comes as part of an intensive administration effort to hold down premium increases for next year, a top priority for the White House as the rates will be announced ahead of this fall’s congressional elections.

Administration officials for months have denied charges by opponents that they plan a “bailout” for insurance companies providing coverage under the healthcare law.

They continue to argue that most insurers shouldn’t need to substantially increase premiums because safeguards in the healthcare law will protect them over the next several years.

But the change in regulations essentially provides insurers with another backup: If they keep rate increases modest over the next couple of years but lose money, the administration will tap federal funds as needed to cover shortfalls.
…

RE:pfft @ 21 –
They’ve been cooking the books for many years… Dems and Reps.http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket/
….since the 1960s, Washington has been forced to gull its citizens and creditors by debasing official statistics: the vital instruments with which the vigor and muscle of the American economy are measured. The effect, over the past twenty-five years, has been to create a false sense of economic achievement and rectitude, allowing us to maintain artificially low interest rates, massive government borrowing, and a dangerous reliance on mortgage and financial debt even as real economic growth has been slower than claimed.
…. the deception arose gradually, at no stage stemming from any concerted or cynical scheme. There was no grand conspiracy, just accumulating opportunisms. As we will see, the political blame for the slow, piecemeal distortion is bipartisan—both Democratic and Republican administrations had a hand in the abetting of political dishonesty, reckless debt, and a casino-like financial sector. To see how, we must revisit forty years of economic and statistical dissembling.

RE:pfft @ 21 –
They’ve been cooking the books for many years… Dems and Reps.http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket/
….since the 1960s, Washington has been forced to gull its citizens and creditors by debasing official statistics: the vital instruments with which the vigor and muscle of the American economy are measured. The effect, over the past twenty-five years, has been to create a false sense of economic achievement and rectitude, allowing us to maintain artificially low interest rates, massive government borrowing, and a dangerous reliance on mortgage and financial debt even as real economic growth has been slower than claimed.
…. the deception arose gradually, at no stage stemming from any concerted or cynical scheme. There was no grand conspiracy, just accumulating opportunisms. As we will see, the political blame for the slow, piecemeal distortion is bipartisan—both Democratic and Republican administrations had a hand in the abetting of political dishonesty, reckless debt, and a casino-like financial sector. To see how, we must revisit forty years of economic and statistical dissembling.

lol. shadow stats. all the same conspiracy theories are there. core inflation and etc.

“.since the 1960s, Washington has been forced to gull its citizens and creditors by debasing official statistics”

yeah and nobody figured it out. here is a clue. investors(the good ones) uncover stuff like this. it’s already baked into the caked so to speak.

RE:Blake @ 22 – You forgot to mention the role of the press covering for the politician(s).

It should be obvious to all by now that the Washington-New York beltway connects the corporate media heads, the politicians, and the corporate CEOs… they attend the same dinner parties and clubs, send their children to the same elite schools, have the same attachment to maintaining the status quo, and share the same enemy – – us… the US public. That’s why we must be spied on and not allowed to know what our government is doing. They think we’re conspiring to throw them out of power (and into jail) … and they are right. We are out to get them, but they’ll do anything to hold onto power.

RE:Blake @ 25 – Yep, David Gregory’s kids go to the same school as the Obama’s kids.

It also explains why the press is so anti-Citizen’s United. But for that ruling Congress could pass legislation affecting them too, but they aren’t worried about that because they’re currently on the same team as the politicians. Very short sighted, IMHO, but the press isn’t filled with people who are high on the IQ scale.

let me be frank. if people on a message board in seattle know about it the big boys on wall street new about it a long time ago. a long time ago.

Pfft, the point of Kevin Phillips’ 2008 Harper’s piece – as stated in the first paragraph – is that the the government cooks the official statistics to “gull its citizens.” Yes, the boys on Wall Street (and most of the people on this message board) know the real deal: Today we have now equalled the number of full-time workers that we had before the Great Recession began, yet the working age population has increased 13 million!!!! But the unemployment “rate” is 6.3%…

Yet, “unwitting citizens” will cite the official unemployment stats to argue that times are good again and the economy has recovered! But the divergence between the real economy and the official stats is becoming untenable… this is one of the major drags on Obama’s popularity and if he and his supporters keep citing official stats then it shows that they are truly clueless.

http://robertreich.org/post/81685592406
-snip- More than five years after Wall Street’s near meltdown the number of full-time workers is still less than it was in December 2007, yet the working-age population of the U.S. has increased by 13 million since then. This explains why so many people are still getting nowhere. Unemployment among those 18 to 29 is 11.4 percent, nearly double the national rate. Most companies continue to shed workers, cut wages, and horde their cash because they don’t have enough customers to warrant expansion. Why? The vast middle class and poor don’t have enough purchasing power, as 95 percent of the economy’s gains go to the top 1 percent.

let me be frank. if people on a message board in seattle know about it the big boys on wall street new about it a long time ago. a long time ago.

Pfft, the point of Kevin Phillips’ 2008 Harper’s piece – as stated in the first paragraph – is that the the government cooks the official statistics to “gull its citizens.” Yes, the boys on Wall Street (and most of the people on this message board) know the real deal: Today we have now equalled the number of full-time workers that we had before the Great Recession began, yet the working age population has increased 13 million!!!! But the unemployment “rate” is 6.3%…

Yet, “unwitting citizens” will cite the official unemployment stats to argue that times are good again and the economy has recovered! But the divergence between the real economy and the official stats is becoming untenable… this is one of the major drags on Obama’s popularity and if he and his supporters keep citing official stats then it shows that they are truly clueless.

http://robertreich.org/post/81685592406
-snip- More than five years after Wall Street’s near meltdown the number of full-time workers is still less than it was in December 2007, yet the working-age population of the U.S. has increased by 13 million since then. This explains why so many people are still getting nowhere. Unemployment among those 18 to 29 is 11.4 percent, nearly double the national rate. Most companies continue to shed workers, cut wages, and horde their cash because they don’t have enough customers to warrant expansion. Why? The vast middle class and poor don’t have enough purchasing power, as 95 percent of the economy’s gains go to the top 1 percent.

there have been plenty of stories about the long term participation rate. we know it’s bad. the headline unemployment number is what it is. you don’t just not report it.

The home-improvement pimping is getting crowded, or should I say, into a bubble.
First of, on the Tims’ employer, Porch.http://blogs.seattletimes.com/brierdudley/2014/03/03/16501/
“A breakthrough was a deal with Lowe’s announced in January. It put Porch.com in stores and on the devices carried by Lowe’s employees, who direct customers to the site when they’re looking for professional help with home-improvement projects.”
Hmmm…getting a deal with brick and mortar stores was considered to be a breakthrough…
“…employees chipped in to paint and decorate the space.” Hmmm…anyone know any good home-improvement contractor? Hello? Anyone?
Then the new player.http://blogs.seattletimes.com/brierdudley/2014/05/13/16734/
“A chunk of the funding was spent acquiring the Pro.com domain from a Belgian tech company that reserved the name awhile ago but hadn’t been using it, Williams said.”
Hmmm…have to admit “pro” is a pretty good name…not sure how big the chunk of money was…but how about having a bit of creativity? I don’t know…how about “Deck”?
Look like the dot.com has been “recovered” pretty well, just like the housing market…

Meanwhile on the Permanent War front: President 0 (“Mr. Blah Blah Blah”) has yet to push forward any changes to the AUMF that he spoke so eloquently about one year ago. Funny how many people still do not realize that all Obama likes to do is talk talk talk… He’s our national scold…

“I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further,” Obama said at the time. “Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.”

But one year later, the administration has yet to provide Congress with suggested specific changes to the law, much less with legislative language for rewriting it.
(end quote)

Meanwhile on the Permanent War front: President 0 (“Mr. Blah Blah Blah”) has yet to push forward any changes to the AUMF that he spoke so eloquently about one year ago. Funny how many people still do not realize that all Obama likes to do is talk talk talk..

I look forward to engaging Congress

But one year later, the administration has yet to provide Congress with suggested specific changes to the law, much less with legislative language for rewriting it.

RE:pfft @ 38 –
Oh, I forgot… He is “leading from behind” again!
A great leader… The Big 0

leading from behind is republican spin. nobody cares about it accept Republicans. Bush lead from the front(as President not when he was in the National Guard dodging service. Same for Cheney) and how did that go?

The thing is it doesn’t matter what he puts out, it’s not passing Congress. If Obama is behind it they are against it. Leading from behind indeed.

– snip – What is fascinating is that Nixon was largely unsuccessful in accomplishing this dream of a presidency with robust and largely unlimited powers. Indeed, many of the unchecked powers claimed by Nixon became the basis for articles in his impeachment and led to his resignation on Aug. 9, 1974.

Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an imperial presidency with unilateral powers and privileges. But in 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition.

-Surveillance. Nixon’s use of warrantless surveillance was cited as one of his greatest abuses and led to the creation of the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Obama, however, has expanded warrantless surveillance programs to a degree that dwarfs anything Nixon imagined, including initiating a program that captured communications of virtually every U.S. citizen.

-War. Nixon’s impeachment included the charge that he evaded Congress’ sole authority to declare war by invading Cambodia. Obama went even further in the Libyan war, declaring that he alone defines what is a “war” for the purposes of triggering the constitutional provisions on declarations of Congress. That position effectively converts the entire provision in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution (“Congress shall have power to … declare War”) into a discretionary power of the president.

-Kill lists. Nixon ordered a burglary to find evidence to use against Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, and was accused of a secret plot to have the White House “plumbers” “incapacitate” him in a physical attack. People were outraged. Yet Obama has asserted the right to kill any U.S. citizen without a charge, let alone conviction, based on his sole authority. Internal documents state that he has a right to kill a citizen even when he lacks “clear evidence (of) a specific attack” being planned.

-Reporters/whistle-blowers. Nixon was known for his attacks on whistleblowers, using the Espionage Act of 1917 to bring a rare criminal case against Ellsberg. He was vilified for this abuse of the law, but Obama has brought twice as many such prosecutions as all prior presidents combined. Nixon was accused of putting a few reporters under surveillance. The Obama administration has admitted to putting Associated Press reporters, as well as a Fox reporter, under surveillance.

-Obstruction of Congress. Nixon was cited for various efforts to obstruct or mislead congressional investigators. The Obama administration has repeatedly refused to give evidence sought by oversight committees in a variety of scandals. In one case, Congress voted to move forward with criminal contempt charges against Attorney General Eric Holder, which Holder’s own Justice Department blocked. In another case, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied before Congress on the surveillance programs, and later said that he offered the least untruthful statement he could think of. The Obama administration, however, refuses to investigate Clapper for perjury, let alone fire him. Recently, the administration was accused of searching Senate computers in an investigation of the CIA and trying to intimidate congressional investigators.”
etc…

Blake sez: Truly shameful how enthusiastically “Constitutional scholar” Obama and his advisors have embraced these powers! This is something that the left and right should unite on… except that with a Dem in office, the Obamabots give him a pass… and in a few years, if a Rep gets into office, the right will cheer on the Imperial Presidency!

Turley concludes:
“It may be that it is not the presidency that has changed. We have changed. As a nation, we seem to have grown almost bored with rights like privacy and due process. We have been passive and pedestrian in watching the rise of an uber-presidency. We no longer view ourselves as directing our government, but as merely bystanders watching matters outside our control.

…“Democracy … soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself,” John Adams once said. “There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

What is truly sad is that if one of the greatest republics in history did die, it is not clear if anyone would even notice its passing.”
(end quote)

By pfft @ 40:leading from behind is republican spin. nobody cares about it accept Republicans.

No pfft… it’s from the New Yorker, citing an Admin source:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/04/leading-from-behind-obama-clinton.html
And Lizza points out that the phrase is consistent with the Administration’s “bait and switch” deception:
…”Frankly, what Obama did was a massive bait and switch. He used the Arab League’s support for a no-fly zone to win United Nations support for a far larger military intervention. The debate about the merits of this style of leadership should also take into account what was accomplished.”

Lizza wrote that in 2011… as Libya has decended into utter chaos and now civil war, should Obama, Hillary Clinton and company take a victory lap now?

RE:Blake @ 41 – Just the drone strikes by themselves should result in impeachment, but you never hear that mentioned. That lack of noise is part of the evidence that the Democrats and Republicans are really part of the same team. If the Republicans hated Obama as much as the rhetoric, there he would have already been impeached by the heavily leaning Republican House.

Maybe they’re waiting to take over the Senate so they can win the trial too?

leading from behind is republican spin. nobody cares about it accept Republicans.
Lizza wrote that in 2011… as Libya has decended into utter chaos and now civil war, should Obama, Hillary Clinton and company take a victory lap now?yes. I am sure if you were in Benghazi when the LIbyan army was going to smash it to pieces you are gracious. Libya has problems but it is better than when the US intervened. to say otherwise is nonsense.

tell us about this person. I am very curious and to why you have never elaborate on who this person is. is there a reason? to be fair virtually nobody has provided background on here or in the media.

2. what would you have done.

1. He was an accused terrorist. At the very least he was an extremist. Clearly he should have had zero rights because of what he was accused of. /sarc

2. If you cannot kidnap them in a raid, you can always try them in abstentia. Then you have an actual criminal conviction. Presumably Obama with his extensive understanding of the Constitution would have known that. /sarc

But why do you ask me for case law? The Obama administration has been blocking court access to the document which purports to give an analysis which purportedly gives him the power. Presumably it’s because that document is likely the funniest document in the world, and will cause anyone who reads it to die laughing at its stupidity.

RE:Blurtman @ 50 – I was focusing on the killing of US citizens, but the use of drones outside of a theater of other US military activity is also problematic. Rather ironic that we have the anti-war candidate for President committing acts of war as President in multiple countries. But the one thing Obamacare has taught us is that Obama will lie to get what he wants, he’s admitted that.

tell us about this person. I am very curious and to why you have never elaborate on who this person is. is there a reason? to be fair virtually nobody has provided background on here or in the media.

2. what would you have done.

Anwar al-Awlaki who was born in New Mexico. His father, Nasser al-Awlaki, was a Fulbright Scholar who earned a master’s degree in agricultural economics at New Mexico State University and a doctorate at the University of Nebraska, and worked at the University of Minnesota from 1975 to 1977…
Two weeks after killing Anwar, Obama ordered the killing of his 16 year old son Abdulrahman, who was born in Denver.
BHO: Judge, jury, executioner.

Yes, Anwar was speaking out against US policies and rallying others to fight and overthrow US backed regimes. But by the “standard” the US is applying, Libyans, Syrians and others could execute pfft and other Americans for advocating violent revolution against their countries!? No?

As for question #2. what would you have done?
Not killed them… it is clear now that US drone strikes in Yemen and elsewhere helped the jihadis rally and organize, gathering recruits from all over the region – – especially Libya and Syria where the jihadis have found fertile ground and lots of US weapons at their disposal.
“Nice work Barack!”

Libya has problems but it is better than when the US intervened. to say otherwise is nonsense.

You are an ignorant American. Here we witness the bi-partisan logic of ongoing, permanent war. The Republicans and pro-war Democrats have no remorse for destroying Iraq, and now the Obamabots line up to tell the Libyans to suck it up… “You’ve never had it so good!”
Pig-ignorant American… Fours years ago in Libyan girls could go to school, people could feed their families, they had a functioning central government. There were protests and unrisings, but it was not civil war. You can excuse your ignorance because the patriotic, US corporate media has hardly written a word about the Libyan disaster the last three years… but use the internet and try to educate yourself a bit!http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/three-years-after-u.s.-intervention-libyas-an-even-bigger-disaster/article/2545820#

Yes and Hillary is positioning herself to the RIGHT of Obama on foreign policy and national security! She’s always been a hawk, but now she can smell the Presidency and wants to be sure that no Republican will outflank her on the war front!http://antiwar.com/blog/2014/04/29/hillary-clinton-the-democratic-partys-pro-war-anti-civil-liberties-front-runner/
… US elections are always depressing spectacles, but if Hillary wins the nomination this one could be the worst! She has all the money in the world, but I think she’ll have a hard time in the primaries… she is abrasive and has a thin skin. And something like 46% of Americans already have a negative opinion of her. Let’s hope Warren or another candidate emerges on the left. But if the economy tanks in 2015/2016 the Reps will waltz into office!

tell us about this person. I am very curious and to why you have never elaborate on who this person is. is there a reason? to be fair virtually nobody has provided background on here or in the media.

2. what would you have done.

1. He was an accused terrorist. At the very least he was an extremist. Clearly he should have had zero rights because of what he was accused of. /sarc

2. If you cannot kidnap them in a raid, you can always try them in abstentia. Then you have an actual criminal conviction. Presumably Obama with his extensive understanding of the Constitution would have known that. /sarc

But why do you ask me for case law? The Obama administration has been blocking court access to the document which purports to give an analysis which purportedly gives him the power. Presumably it’s because that document is likely the funniest document in the world, and will cause anyone who reads it to die laughing at its stupidity.

why did it take so many months for someone to finally give background?

RE:Blurtman @ 50 – I was focusing on the killing of US citizens, but the use of drones outside of a theater of other US military activity is also problematic. Rather ironic that we have the anti-war candidate for President committing acts of war as President in multiple countries.

not at all. didn’t you read his Nobel Prize speech when you were researching how it was a joke that he got a Nobel Prize? He was the anti-Iraq war candidate and ran on finishing the war in Afghanistan. Don’t you remember him campaigning on that?

RE:Kary L. Krismer @ 54 – Push the button. Children get their heads blown off. Not covered by USA media.

if they don’t cover it how do you know about it? drones have been covered extensively. remember rand paul “filibuster.” remember rachel maddow’s great covering of drones? Btw if you want real criticize of the president watch MSNBC. People like Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews have far better criticisms of the president than you find on fox. fox just makes stuff up. CNN is bland he said/she said journalism.

But what the heck, its the Memorial Day Weekend! We didn’t cause this mess [and there’s little we can do to fix it either]….so smile as much as possible without this NWO poisoning affecting our demure. If you can’t change city hall, join it….I’m not saying agree with the lies, just protect yourselves and family economically [what else can we do?].

Buy some $4-5/lb overpriced fat burgers, fry them babies on the grill and Saturday [it stops raining then] lift up a favorite brew and salute all us bubbleheads for a wonderful journey. Overall, life is great you know and here’s wishing the best to us all ;-)

I’m so greatful for my life in America [I know I got it’s best years], I traded in my 2011 Charger for a 2014 Special Edition upgrade [$8k extra marked down to $2K] this month after it got bashed at the work parking lot. I gave the fellow employee who bashed it a “high five” for getting me to trade it in after I lost its “factory paint” collector car value….I paid $22.6K for it, got $20K trade-in for a zeroed out odometer and new free warranty on my new red Charger. Think a completely new paradigm everyday, it may not always make you rich, but it sure puts a smile on your face.

Happy Memorial Day, remember the brave souls that fought for our freedoms, without them, none of us lucky devils with good jobs would be here eatin’ burgers and using our country’s freedom of speech.

Do you know that Libyans have the best attitudes towards Americans in the entire middle east?

Wow… that’s the most “professional” wikipedia page I’ve ever seen! Over 350 references, lots of pictures… Very impressive piece of work. Must have taken a lot of time and money. Great info like this: “The rebels were composed primarily of civilians, such as teachers, students, lawyers, and oil workers…”

And here I thought they were jihadis… people that might perhaps kill the US Ambassador and terrorize the countryside…

And I am curious… you wrote “the biggest mistake of Obama’s presidency has been Syria?”
You think not enough bombs and weapons for Syria, I assume? I think over the last 3 years we’ve provided about $1 billion in weapons (including tons that we transferred from Libya) and training for forces based in Turkey and Jordan. Not quite enough civil war for your tastes?

Do you know that Libyans have the best attitudes towards Americans in the entire middle east?

And I am curious… you wrote “the biggest mistake of Obama’s presidency has been Syria?”
You think not enough bombs and weapons for Syria, I assume? I think over the last 3 years we’ve provided about $1 billion in weapons (including tons that we transferred from Libya) and training for forces based in Turkey and Jordan. Not quite enough civil war for your tastes?/blockquote>do you know almost 200,000 people have died in Syria. We could have stopped it. Your comments about how Syria wasn’t a civil war is a joke and if I were a serious person I’d stop debating you based on that alone. you are so naive.

do you know almost 200,000 people have died in Syria. We could have stopped it. Your comments about how Syria wasn’t a civil war is a joke and if I were a serious person I’d stop debating you based on that alone. you are so naive.

Yeah, I never said Syria was not in a civil war… I challenge you to find that anywhere in this forum.

You really think if the US had attacked Syria that fewer people would have died?

btw: Take 30 seconds to look at this… from US-based the Council on Foreign Relations:http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2014/04/01/syria-civil-war-total-fatalities/
…. “Estimates released today by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) portray a different picture of the civil war in Syria than U.S. policymakers and media convey. SOHR’s estimated death toll reinforces the point made in an article published on ForeignPolicy.com in September 2013, when they last released updated data: most of the reported deaths in Syria have not been committed by forces under Bashar al-Assad’s command.”

Read the Fifth Amendment: “No person shall be . . . deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

So, unless these citizens were somehow not “persons” they were deprived of their life without any process other than presumably a signature from Obama ordering them to be killed.

Obama has been trampling the Bill of Rights left and right, but his killing of American citizens is by far the most extreme action he’s taken because of the dire consequences to those Americans he has killed.

BTW, it hasn’t taken months to explain who he’s killed. Your memory just sucks.

RE:Kary L. Krismer @ 71 – Death from the sky. We decide. It’d like a horrible science fiction movie. One moment you are talking to friends. The next moment pieces of you decorate the smoldering ground.

So many Americans being like pfft make me sick. They are the proverbial frog in the pot of water. Look how many people thought Snowden was a traitor, totally ignoring the outrageous things the government is doing.

On the topic of Snowden, NBC will be airing an hour long interview sometime this week. I thought it was supposed to be Wednesday at 10:00, but Windows Media Center tells me otherwise.

I thought I was on Seattle Bubble…not tryouts for a slot on RTTV.
My mistake.

Funny, I was just thinking this morning about how the counter-culture of the 60s really sold out. You went from having John Kerry complaining about what was going on in the country to his helping run it in ways that were never imagined back then even in peoples’ worst nightmares.

Nice to cap that off with some nonsense claim that by actually wanting to follow the Constitution and Bill of Rights you’re un-American. Makes me very nostalgic and missing Archie Bunker.

The “Fat Man”? Chris Christie? He’s got as much chance of getting elected President as I have winning a beauty contest.
With Bill Clinton, W, and now Obama, I’ve always had the feeling that they were doing the bidding of parties more powerful than themselves. Puppets.